


"I could kill you." "You could try."

by swordfaery



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Slight Description of Injury, Spaceship Crash, keith is impaled, lance has a head injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28599258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swordfaery/pseuds/swordfaery
Summary: Written for Klance secret santa 2020, slightly older and more grizzled Keith and Lance. They're rebels in this, fighting against the Galran empire- Voltron never happened, or other paladins were chosen, and Keith and Lance are the strongest fighters their rebel division has.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	"I could kill you." "You could try."

**Today**

It had been a risky maneuver- but they’d both known that. They were both used to taking risks, to hurling ships through tiny gaps that no sane pilot would ever attempt, to taking the runs no one else would dare look at and smiling. Keith and Lance, Lance and Keith, more legend than men at this point- though those who knew them personally laughed at that.

“Fuck.” muttered Keith from where the collision had tossed him out of his seat. “Fucking shitballs that hurt.” 

Perhaps Pidge was onto something when ze told him to wear a seatbelt, but he could never tell zem that. Slowly, he began to right himself, his limbs complaining as he did so. There was something poking painfully into his side, really painfully in fact. He should move that.“Fuck.” he said again, under his breath; crashes were really not his thing. Keith was far more used to just managing to not crash at the last second, at giving a wink to his copilot and brushing off a lecture from someone about how he ought to be more careful. 

Perhaps he ought to have listened to those lectures. 

He could never say that outloud of course, Lance would never let him hear the end of it. Wait, double fuck, where was Lance? He should be groaning loudly and over dramatically about the crash right now, but aside from the ringing in his ears he heard nothing. 

“Lance.” he attempted to yell out into the darkness of his ship (he really hoped she wasn’t too badly damaged, for someone so tiny Pidge couldn’t half yell) “Lance!”. His voice was barely more than a croak, and as he sat up he realised that the thing poking into his side had in fact impaled him. Triple fuck. 

Gingerly, he poked the wound in his side. It hurt. He was pretty sure wounds were meant to do that, but he wasn’t a medic. He had been stabbed many times before though, and he was fairly sure that if he was dying it would hurt more. Slowly and painfully he pulled a torch from his pocket to shed light (heh) on what had happened. First he would figure out what was wrong with him, then save Lance, and then, once they were in a better position he could hold it over Lance that he had rescued him even though he had been impaled by a… Well. The torch beam revealed that some sort of metal pole was sticking into his side. Keith had no idea what it did and what it was for- it looked like something from a construction site or something that injured characters in cartoons for plot convenience. 

Whatever it was, it was too long for him to walk around with it poking out of him. This called for surgery- on the pole not on himself. Fortunately, Keith hadn’t earned the nickname “Knife Wife” for nothing. It had been a joke from Lance, teasing him about the sheer amount of knives he owned, and the name had stuck. If he was actually the terrifying grizzled smuggler that most of base thought he was, Keith would have gutted anyone who he heard calling him that, but as it was he secretly found the nickname amusing.

Pulling out one of his sharpest knives, one he affectionately called Betsy, he sliced through the pole as close to the injury as he dared. It was an impressive cut, not many people owned knives that could cut through metal, but no one was around to admire it. Betsy also very badly needed to be sharpened after a cut like that, and Keith didn’t have the tools on him. He tucked her back into his belt, and got to his feet; an action that like all of his others was slow and painful. 

“Lance!” he called out, his voice coming back to him. “Lance where are you!”  
There was no reply. If something bad had happened to Lance Keith would never forgive himself- he had been the one to recruit Lance into the agency anway, he had been the one who had made the ridiculous maneuver that had got them into this mess. 

He took a step forward, a stab of pain shooting from the pole wound all through his body. Pole wound made it sound incredibly stupid, Lance would have probably made in an inappropriate joke about it if he had been there, and thinking about it brought a small smile to Keith’s face. 

He realised then, that if he simply swung the torch around the room he would see everything in it, and therefore where Lance had landed. It was a very simple plan, the sort that anyone with half a brain cell could have come up with, and Keith felt a little embarrassed that he didn’t come up with it sooner. 

The beam of torch light moved around the ship, showing first the control panel Keith had been at before he was thrown out, then the co pilot seat Lance had been sitting in just behind, then a row of panels that Keith barely ever used, and then, of the floor, not moving, was Lance. There was a gash on his forehead that was bleeding a little more than Keith was comfortable with, but apart from that he had no visible injuries- he was alive, most likely, but knowing this did little to calm Keith’s rather too fast heart rate. 

He took another step towards Lance- fuck that hurt, and then another, gritting his teeth as he did so. This pain would be nothing compared to the pain he would feel if Lance died. He realised that that thought was a rather overdramatic one, the sort of thing Lance might say if he were awake, and shook the thought out of his mind. Lance wasn’t awake, and Keith needed to change that. 

Finally managing to limp over to wear Lance was slumped, he nudged him with the toe of his boot. Nothing happened, but Keith felt his stab wound (he was calling it that even if it wasn’t one. Sounded badass) complain. 

Slowly, groaning slightly as he did so, he knelt down over Lance’s unconscious body. Being this close to Lance made Keith’s heart race in a way he didn’t want to acknowledge, and he leaned over to see if he could hear Lance breathing. 

He could.

Keith wasn’t sure how fast people were meant to breath, or what different breathing patterns might mean- but Lance’s breath seemed fine? Pidge was the one to ask about that sort of stuff, probably, although ze was more keen on things that ticked as opposed to breathed, and would probably just give Lance a shake. 

Keith decided to follow the imaginary Pidge’s advice, because ze was the cleverest person he knew even if that was just the advice of a cheap imitation he conjured up of zem in his mind, and gave Lance a quick shake. 

Lance’s eyelids fluttered open, and Keith’s heart made what felt like a similar sort of motion. 

**Two years ago**

Keith lifted the viser of his helmet up and frowned at the person in front of him. “I have lots of weapons.” he said, trying to sound intimidating, “you should really surrender now!” he thought about adding an insult on the end, like scum or traitor, but then the moment passed and saying anything like that would have felt stupid. 

“Hey chillax bro.” said the other person, taking his helmet off completely, revealing his face. Keith was not looking at that face- it was the sort of face designed to entrap rebels that were trying to save galaxies in cunning traps that would kill them. “Are you with the resistance? I’ve been trying to get in with those guys for years- you think you could put in a good word for me?”

Keith blinked at him. Those were a lot of words said very fast, and he was very tired. He had just destroyed almost an entire Galra supplies thingy and suddenly this alarmingly handsome man had shown up practically flinging himself at Keith. What was happening. 

“Are you a spy?” he said, coming to the only logical conclusion. “Because I can either kill you, or take you with me to be interrogated-” it was the right moment to say something intimidating and he was about to say scum when he was rudely interrupted. 

“I’m not a spy, my name’s Lance. I know that’s exactly the sort of thing a spy would say- not the Lance bit- well maybe the Lance bit- but I promise I’m actually not! Or I could be if you needed one- I’ve always wanted to join a resistance!” 

He talked a lot, Keith noted, and his name was seemingly Lance. A Lance was a kind of weapon, and Keith did like weapons. That was no reason to trust him of course, but if he did turn out to be a spy Keith could always kill him later.

**Today**

“Keith…” Lance groaned, reaching an arm up to touch him, “Keith what happened?”

He sounded as rough as Keith felt, which Keith thought was kind of fair enough. He had just crashed their spaceship into a floating lump of space rock whilst showing off… and Keith really hoped that Lance wouldn’t be too cross with him about that.

“I crashed the ship.” he said, taking the hand that Lance was reaching out to him, “I crashed the ship and I’m sorry.”

“You’re hurt.” Said Lance abruptly, noticing the piece of metal in Keith’s side. “You’ve been hurt, Keith, that doesn’t look too good.”  
It did not, as Lance had so eloquently put it, look too good, but Keith was not dwelling on that. Lance had been knocked on the head so hard he had passed out- Keith was no expert but that felt like the sort of thing that people considered bad and dangerous. He vowed to take a first aid course if they got out of this alive.

“I’m ok.” Said Keith, “Can you stand?” 

Instead of answering, Lance attempted to get to his feet, grabbing onto Keith as he did so. Keith did his best to stay upright, grunting as his legs threatened to buckle beneath him- and after a slight struggle they were both standing up, arms around each other. Lance looked slightly dazed and Keith’s face was twisted into a pained expression, but they were standing up.

“Ok. What’s the plan now?” Lance asked, his mouth very close to Keith’s ear, so close Keith could feel his breath. It was distracting, and Keith needed to focus on getting them both out alive, not on Lance and Lance’s mouth and the three moles on Lance’s face that Keith thought about kissing slightly more than he should. Mentally he chided himself for that train of thought, now was really not the time, and set himself to formulating a plan. 

“We’re going to head over to the comms system, and see if we can get through to Pidge.” he said, keeping his voice calm. It wasn’t a good plan- or even really a plan, but it was something and Keith was too shook up and in too much pain to do any better. 

“Pidge,” muttered Lance, “Good idea.” He leant his head against Keith’s shoulder, “Pidge always knows what to do.” 

**Two years ago**

“You’re a fool.” said Pidge, folding zer arms as Keith gave zem a look of apology. “You found this random boy in a Galra base and decided to keep him? He could be a spy! He certainly looks shifty...”

“Hey!” 

“Yeah but- I mean you can just interrogate him with your-” Keith couldn’t remember the name of Pidge’s lie thingy, “incredible technology, and if he’s lying we kill him.”

“Hey!” 

“I suppose that makes sense- but next time you ask before taking in a stray!”

“Oh come on!” Lance was growing more and more disgruntled from the corner he had been tied up and left in. Allura, who was in charge of this particular rebel division, had simply given Keith a look when he’d walked in towing a stranger who didn’t seem to know how to shut up, and deferred to Pidge who was in charge of dealing with whatever problems the base might have. Pidge had unceremoniously put Lance in a corner to be delt with after ze had finished ripping into Keith. 

“Shut up, space trash.” said Pidge, and Keith wished he had thought of that back when he’d been trying to intimidate Lance earlier. It would have been so intimidating, and Lance would have definitely thought he was cool. 

Lance shut up, suggesting that Pidge’s intimidation had worked, and allowed himself to be led to a scary looking chair in zer lab, and be hooked up to it. Keith wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, Pidge had given an excited scientific spiel about how ze had built it from scratch and how it was one hundred percent accurate and how it would change the face of interrogations forever- but Keith had only understood about half of it. 

“Ok, Lance.” Said Pidge, and Keith stood behind zem with his arms folder. “First question- why are you here?”

**Today**

Keith gently eased Lance back into his chair. Lance’s head rolled back and for a second Keith was worried that he was unconscious again- but then Lance sat up properly and gave him a dopey grin that made his insides swoop. “Hey, we made it back to our seats!” he said, like it was reason for celebration and not ten steps across a room. It had been the most arduous ten steps of Keith’s life, but he had made it. They had made it. 

“Yeah. Now we call Pidge.” He pressed the comms button on his control panel, normally something Lance would do, but Lance seemed pretty out of it. 

Surprisingly, Pidge picked up almost straight away. 

“Lance!” Ze said, then “Keith! Are you ok?” 

“I crashed the ship Pidge, I’m so sorry-” Keith didn’t realise how tense he was until he heard Pidge’s voice, and to his great embarrassment he found tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen and I don’t know what to do and-”

“I’ve got you.” Ze said, and Keith can hear the urgency in zer voice, but also the way that ze knew that ze did have it. Keith felt himself relax slightly. “Are either of you injured?” Ze continued. 

“Keith has been impaled!” Lance butted in, “He’s got a chunk of metal in his side and he winces whenever he moves.” 

Keith turned to glare at Lance, and winced at the sudden movement. “I’m fine.” he said. “But Lance got knocked unconscious and has a head wound.” 

Pidge gave an exasperated sigh, and then began ordering instructions through the comms. It was going to be ok. They were going to be ok. 

**Two years ago**

Keith didn’t exactly want a partner- but apparently if you took someone into the base they were your responsibility. Keith had to train Lance to use the weapons, teach Lance the different codes they used, spend his free time making sure Lance wasn’t getting himself blown up… It was what Keith would have considered a cruel and unusual punishment before realising how- not nice, nice was far too boring of a word, and fun didn’t even begin to cover it. Lance was genuinely good company. Sure he talked too much and was far too pretty, but he also genuinely listened when Keith told him things, and spent ages trying to get him to laugh when he told a joke, and would give him the biggest grins when he managed it. 

Keith wasn’t even upset when Allura said she was assigning them to missions together. Months ago before he met Lance he would have said something grumpy about working alone but now he was excited about taking Lance in his ship with him, about having someone by his side as he went on missions. Not that he would ever admit any of this of course, but Keith liked having Lance around. 

The night before their first mission he took Lance over to his favourite place in the base. It was near the engine, and not really big enough for two people, but they squashed in. The room was warm, and you could feel the pulses from the engine, feel the power that kept the whole base going. It was comforting to sit beside it, or at least Keith thought so. 

“Come here often?” asked Lance, squished up against Keith’s cheek. “Because, and in the nicest possible way, I think they should have given you better quarters by now.”

Keith looked down at his lap. “I uh, I come here to relax.” he looked across at Lance, “I don’t normally take people down here but…” he trailed off, looking over at a mole on Lance’s neck. “I don’t know.” he murmured. 

He was surprised to feel Lance’s hand laced in his, but when he looked down it was definitely there. “Thanks Keith.” said Lance quietly. “Thanks for bringing me here.”

Keith wasn’t entirely sure who kissed who first- Lance always claimed it was him but Keith secretly had his doubts. Of course it didn’t matter who started their first kiss, or who started their second in fact. What mattered was that they could kiss each other, that they had each other, and the confined space of the engine room was only an incentive to get closer together. 

**Today**

They were treated like heros when they got back to base- even though they fucked up their mission and crashed a ship. Keith was too tired to care though, too relieved that Lance was going to be ok, in too much pain to try and bat away the people telling him how brave he was. He had just crashed a ship whilst showing off! Couldn’t they at least hate him for that. 

Lance, who normally loved hero worship, also seemed distressed by it all. Keith couldn’t tell exactly what was upsetting him, but he held out his hand for Lance to take, hoping that he could provide a little comfort. Lance gave his hand a squeeze, signalling that it was ok, and Keith let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. After that everything went far too fast- Pidge was yelling at him for not wearing a seatbelt, and Allura was giving him a kiss on the forehead before informing him that he was going to learn first aid, and then people from the medical bay were taking him off to have the piece of metal cut out of him- but somehow, even when he woke up all groggy after surgery, Lance was still holding his hand. 

When (finally) they were left alone, Lance Keith’s hand from where it was resting on his duvet, and pressed his lips against it. “Our mission may have been a failure, m’lord,” he said, his voice slightly too loud for the confined space, “but we both made it out alive and that, in my humble opinion, causes for celebration.” 

Keith rolled his eyes good naturedly when Lance somehow pulled out a tiny cake from behind his back- goodness knows how he had kept it on him- and took a bite before dangling it in Keith’s face. Keith expertly stole the entire cake from Lance’s hand with his mouth, and began chewing it noisily, and then swallowed, grinning at Lance’s indignant expression. 

“You wanted more?” he said, in mock innocence, and Lance stuck out his tongue. “Well,” Keith continued, “I bet the taste is uh, lingering?” 

It was a terrible pick up line, one that Lance would surely tear apart later, but instead he just smiled and lent in. They were Keith and Lance, Lance and Keith- unstoppable unbreakable and completely in love.


End file.
